Talk:Melody of Distant Shores
Just a few items to clarify: *What were the events that garnered her new ranks? How did she become rank 1? Rank 2? You don't need to go into immense detail, but I do need to know in a general sense what events proved that she was ready for these ranks. *How was her braid destroyed? (The shadow-spirits?) *What's the deal with the shadow-spirits and the human mage? The Umbra is fully of wacky wuju, so I can dig the idea of her getting captured by some malevolent spirits and having the gnosis sucked out of her, say. (I do need some reason why they were holding her). Just give me a little more info so I can understand what's going on here. *It's true Uktena don't like giving up their secrets, unless for trade. What else did Melody give up in order to learn from them? She must have traded something else. Perhaps some Corax secrets. This might bite her in the butt later. On Stats: *Attributes: Strength 1 means she's somewhat waifish and pretty weak. That what you're going for? *Abilities: You're missing some Expertise for your knowledges. (Academics, Linguistics, Lore). **There are some abilities that could be cut, or I don't see a particular reason for Melody to have, such as: Marksmanship (never used in her background), Research (Investigation/Lore/Occult seems to be filling this niche, and this would seem to be complicated by her curse ie. computers, bureaucracy, etc.). **Several of her talents are also questionable (Athletics/Dodge I'm assuming as just basic training? But 2 is still above average; not sure where Expression is coming from... Photography along with Crafts? Sensitivity is something that doesn't really manifest much in shifters (the exception being Bastet). I can see 1-2 from her experiences, and then her gifts augment that; 3 seems a bit a high.). **Skills: Meditation isn't mentioned at all really. That doesn't mean she can't have it, but 3 requires some explanation. I'd reduce this unless you're married to the idea. **Knowledges: Some of these seem a bit high. For example, it doesn't seem she's well-traveled in the Umbra, just spent a lot of time in certain places. That's more Cosmology 2. Also, her background states she's not hip with Weavery logic, and even though that is static logic, Enigmas covers that too. Still want 4, considering this? **It seems like she has a fairly close relationship to her inner Raven, which would mean a higher Primal Urge rating (2ish). *Advantages: Her WP is a bit high for what seems to be going on in her background, but I'm willing to leave it alone if some other things are reduced elsewhere. Gnosis is high too, but that makes sense given her capture. *Is it a 1 or 2 rating in Herbalism? *Gifts: I believe Corax get 3 free level 1 gifts, which you've got. Also, whenever you go up a rank, you get a free gift of that rank (rank two gifts in Melody's case). Tongues is a rank 3 gift, which Melody can't take, since she's not rank 3. This needs to be replaced with a rank 2 gift, but you're also getting it for free, so yay! I'd suggest not spending the extra points you'd be getting back; see below. After all of this, Melody's point distribution should be reduced somewhat. I don't see her at the full 70 points of Experience 3, but somewhere in-between 2 and 3. So if she ends up with 55-60ish freebies spent, I'd be okay with that. -- Fenris.